The Adventure Zone: Graduation

From Fanlore
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Fandom
Name: The Adventure Zone: Graduation
Abbreviation(s): TAZ: Graduation
Creator: The McElroy Brothers and Clint McElroy
Date(s): 10/31/2019 - 4/15/2021
Medium: DnD actual-play podcast
Country of Origin: USA
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Adventure Zone: Graduation (often abbreviated as TAZ:Graduation or TAZ:G or simply Graduation) is the third longform campaign of The Adventure Zone podcast and the second played in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. It's an actual-play podcast with Travis McElroy acting as GM. The story follows three characters enrolled in the less prestigious, annex, sidekick program of Hieronymous Wiggenstaff's School for Heroism and Villainy.

Characters

Fandom

Finding works specific to Graduation can be difficult as it does not have a separate fandom tag from other Adventure Zone arcs on AO3, and on FF.net, all TAZ fics are under the umbrella "Radio Drama" fandom. As of September 2020, there is a filterable tag Campaign: Graduation (The Adventure Zone), but is not yet ubiquitous with less than a hundred fics under the tag and more than 200 tagged "Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt."

Fanart of Graduation characters varies widely, as the creators have specifically chosen to not give detailed character descriptions. Argo Keene, a water gensai, is often portrayed as blue skinned with darker blue hair, fin-like ears, and a blue mustache. The Firbolg character (commonly referred to as "Master Firbolg") is often portrayed at the tallest and broadest of the trio, sometimes with leaves, twigs, moss, and/or flowers in his hair. (Sir) Fitzroy Maplecourt is a half elf, usually wearing glasses, mostly with a peach to tan skin tone, with short hair of varying colors.

Controversy

While all arcs of TAZ have come under fire for various reasons, Graduation seems to be particularly prone to it. Criticism of Travis as GM got to the point where he issued a statement about it.[1] Common sentiments include that the campaign is railroaded and the NPCs are bad.

God Graduation is by far the worst Taz season ever. Wild to me for ppl pretend like balance started badly to justify it but like. No it didn't. It was ppl learning but it was actually fun. Graduation in the first 5 eps is just faceless NPCs and railroading.[2]

It has also come under fire for potential racist/colonialist themes.[3]

Example Fanworks

Animatics

Fanart

Fanfiction

you're an upstanding model of the modern day cain with impeccable style by knightofcauldronsStatus: CompleteGenre: Character Study
'A half-elf. A sudden surge of magic. A new school. Anger is a five letter word.'

References

  1. ^ Tweet Thread. Posted 13 Jan 2020. Accessed 20 Sept 2021.
  2. ^ Tweet from bunnarchist. Posted 29 Mar 2020. Accessed 20 Sept 2021.
  3. ^ TAZ: Colonization, or Open Letters to the Creators of TAZ Concerning Native-Coded Characters, from a Concerned Historian of Colonial American History. Posted 31 July 2020. Accessed 20 Sept 2021.